PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has officially communicated to all the departments and authorities concerned to no more append “newly” to the merged districts given that a considerable time has passed since their merger in 2018.

Henceforth, says an official notification issued by home and tribal affairs department, the newly-merged districts would be called as merged districts.

The notification stated that the chief minister was pleased to direct that keeping in view the passage of considerable time post-merger of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), the term newly-merged districts or NMDs for these areas may not be used.

“Instead, the term “merged districts” or (MDs for short) may be used, where required.”

On May 25, 2018, the then president Mamnoon Hussain had assented to the 25th Constitutional Amendment, leading to the merger of Fata into KP. Immediately after the merger, the authorities started referring the region as newly-merged districts.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2024